diff --git a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/datasources/PartitioningAwareFileIndex.scala b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/datasources/PartitioningAwareFileIndex.scala
index 35cd7c2715869..d70c4b11bc0d7 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/datasources/PartitioningAwareFileIndex.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/datasources/PartitioningAwareFileIndex.scala
@@ -74,10 +74,12 @@ abstract class PartitioningAwareFileIndex(
     }
 
     // retrieve the file metadata filters and reduce to a final filter expression
-    val fileMetadataFilterOpt = dataFilters.filter(_.references.forall {
-      case FileSourceMetadataAttribute(_) => true
-      case _ => false
-    }).reduceOption(expressions.And)
+    val fileMetadataFilterOpt = dataFilters.filter { f =>
+      f.references.nonEmpty && f.references.forall {
+        case FileSourceMetadataAttribute(_) => true
+        case _ => false
+      }
+    }.reduceOption(expressions.And)
 
     // - create a bound references for filters: put the metadata struct at 0 position for each file
     // - retrieve the final metadata struct (could be pruned) from filters
diff --git a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/datasources/FileIndexSuite.scala b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/datasources/FileIndexSuite.scala
index fcaf8df4f9a02..690623e72c994 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/datasources/FileIndexSuite.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/datasources/FileIndexSuite.scala
@@ -520,6 +520,18 @@ class FileIndexSuite extends SharedSparkSession {
       SQLConf.get.setConf(StaticSQLConf.METADATA_CACHE_TTL_SECONDS, previousValue)
     }
   }
+
+  test("SPARK-38182: Fix NoSuchElementException if pushed filter does not contain any " +
+    "references") {
+    withTable("t") {
+      withSQLConf(SQLConf.OPTIMIZER_EXCLUDED_RULES.key ->
+        "org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.optimizer.BooleanSimplification") {
+
+        sql("CREATE TABLE t (c1 int) USING PARQUET")
+        assert(sql("SELECT * FROM t WHERE c1 = 1 AND 2 > 1").count() == 0)
+      }
+    }
+  }
 }
 
 object DeletionRaceFileSystem {